I have been a Twitter user since February 2007. At first I did not use Twitter too much. But after I found TweetDeck I discovered that Twitter could be a very useful too. I was able to connect with people, get news stories, and ended up discovering new things on the internet. Some of the webpages others pointed me to were of great help. Some of the conversations were good too. Yet, as of late, I am cooling toward Twitter.

I am not sure how long I have been using Facebook . It is a great service. I have been able to keep in touch with friends, family, and various church members. Yet, I am cooling toward Facebook too.

Why am I cooling to these services? One word: Distractions. Over time I began to realize how distracting these tools can be. While I believe there is a place for these tools, I am also finding that for much of what I need to be doing distractions are a killer. There have been various studies reporting that multitasking is a pipe dream. Even though we believe we are multitasking, the tasks we are working on all suffer.

So, I have decided to cool it on Twitter and Facebook. I am still trying to find a place for them in my life and from time to time I will check in with both services, but for the time being, I am going to focus…on focus.

Grief is a funny thing. As a pastor, I've read about grief, I've studied it and I've watched people go through it. Yet, I am still surprised. I was surprised this morning to find myself in tears after a dream I had about my father. My father died in September. Here it is in May and I thought I was finished with grief. I was wrong.

One of the principles of Adrian van Kaam's Formative Spirituality is appraisal. Van Kaam's science maintains that everything is important. Even the most mundane and boring moments in our lives are pregnant with God's formative potential. So, whenever an event happens, we pause and ask ourselves "what is going on here?" Living out a Formation Theology means not allowing events to pass through our fingers without appraising it in light of formation journey.

I did that this morning. After the dream and the tears I asked myself, "Why?" Why now? What's going on that I would dream about my father who died in September? I thought I was over my grief. I thought it was all in my past. Why would I have such a dream now?

Here's a quote from Susan Muto's work "Where Lovers Meet: Inside the Interior Castle." This work is a companion or commentary to St. Teresa of Avila's "Interior Castle" classic on the spiritual life. Here Muto is discussing St. Teresa's 'vipers' that one encounters as he or she seeks to draw near to God:

The viper's trick is to deceive us into thinking that temporal affairs escalate in significance to the point where they almost seem the eternal. They try to deceive us into believing that worldly success will grant us at some point ultimate satisfaction. This illusion blinds us to the inherent finitude of earthbound affairs. However splendid our accomplishments may be, their outcomes pass away over time if we do not give the credit to God. The way of the vipers is to hold before our mind's eye the esteem in which the world holds us when we exercise this kind of activism. They make us secretly relish people's praise. Our pride-form allures us into thinking that our worthwhileness rests on the works in which we are engaged rather than in the God we serve. These clever devils also try to convince us that any kind of withdrawal to worship God in solitude is a big mistake. What will the other "worker bees" think of us if we take time to "Be still and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10)?

I believe these comments stand on their own. For me, it is a point of reflection as I seek to live out my faith as true significance only comes from resting in God.

It was the last goodbye. The only thing was, I didn’t know it at the time. My father seemed like he was feeling better. It had been a week since we learned the news that he had cancer. Before that, he simply wasn’t feeling right. After a couple of weeks of feeling bad he decided to go to the hospital. There he received medical attention and started feeling better.

Then there was the surgery. They needed to remove fluid buildup. After that, he said he felt much better. In fact, he wanted to go back home, but not eating much in the previous three weeks left him weak. This meant he would go to a nursing home/rehab facility until he could get his strength back.

When I saw him he was in good spirits. He talked about going home on Friday, but since he wasn’t able to get in to see the oncologist the trip home would have to wait. They needed to hear from the doctor before they would release him from rehabilitation.

My time in Forsyth was mostly spent sitting in his room talking with him, well, actually he did most of the talking, but I sat and listened. I realized that was the best thing I could do at the time. I heard stories that I knew and a few that I didn’t.

It was Wednesday when I saw him last. We had made a trip to the doctor’s office to see his surgery doctor. It was there dad learned that he would be staying in the rehab center a bit longer. He took the news in stride. He wanted to go home, but he knew that he would have to wait. He said it was fine.

My son has waited six years to play football. He has been watching football since he was in kindergarten. For some reason, he fell in love with the game. I use to be able to amaze people by having my first grader count by 7's. Why did he know how to count by 7's? Because that's how many points you get for a touchdown and extra point. He could also count by 3's pretty well too.

Even when he was in 3rd or 4th grade I would catch him on a Saturday morning watching Sportscenter rather than cartoons. He would also watch various college games too. He was basically a football fanatic. Men at church would ask him various things about the game, or how a NFL team was doing, or other similar questions. He wouldn't miss a beat.

Adding to the mix was his love of playing Madden Football on his XBox. He got pretty good too. I would play him and he understood defenses, offences, etc. He knew what defense to play by just knowing how many receivers and tight ends I had in the formation. He would sit at the high school games and give running commentary onto how the team could change their formation to stop the full back from eating up yards.

He couldn't wait to get out there and play. Since we are pretty engaged on Sunday mornings, he never was able to play Pop Warner football. That meant, he would have to wait and play football at the school, which meant, he would have to wait until 6th grade.

18 But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness.^[a] 19 They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. 20 For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.

21 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. 22 Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. 23 And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.

Romans 1:18-23

There's something about nature that points to God. Paul basically says that through nature, God speaks. Just by paying attention to the beauty, creativity and majesty around us, God reveals his qualities. Therefore, there is no excuse for not knowing God. Nature's sermon points beyond itself to the creative power and love of God.

As far as Bigfoot hoaxes go, it was short-lived one. - from Bigfoot Hoax: "Body" Is Rubber Suit

I really wasn't following this story too much. After all...Bigfoot??? I went to the news article and started following the links and discovered a world I never knew existed. Oh, I knew there have been Bigfoot sightings and all. My daughter did a report in the 5th grade on Bigfoot and I helped her find some of the material. I had no idea there was a culture surrounding Bigfoot.

For those who don't know the story, there were a couple of guys who said they found a dead Bigfoot. Who are you going to call? SearchingForBigfoot.com. They 'paid' for the frozen body, had a press conference and then started thawing out the body. Steve Kull, a Sasquatch Detective (yes, that's right. His website is at: http://www.squatchdetective.com ) took some hair to analyze, but when it was heated it up it "melted into a ball uncharacteristic of hair." That made them suspicious, but when they got to the rubber foot...well...you get the picture.

I'm discovering that it is possible to fail, yet succeed. Sometimes we try so hard to succeed at things that, in the end, just don't matter that much. The danger is that we succeed in those things, yet fail at the things that really matter. I'm discovering that it is possible to lose, yet win. That in order to save yourself, you must lose yourself, abandon yourself to the Mystery that is God.

I'm grateful for these lessons. I pray they are lessons that last and make a difference in how I plan my day and what I make my focus. After all, there is a chance that in success, I discover failure. Lord, give me the grace and the eyes to see the difference.